Lori+CummingsLBF

Executive Summary
//To determine what makes learning boring or fun I began by analyzing the data for the question that asked "Which of the following describes what you were expected to do during this experience?" I compared the data by creating a bar graph to depict the differences between the boring and fun experiences (found below under each topic). I then looked for patterns in the data to determine the words that were used most to describe fun learning experiences and boring learning experiences. The results of the survey were fairly predictible: sitting and listening to lectures is most often considered to be a boring experience while hands-on, interactive learning is typically fun.//

What Makes Learning Boring?
//What are the expectations for a boring learning experience? The chart below is a good indicator of the differences between what makes learning boring and what makes it fun. First, learners are not expected to interact with other learners. They are expected to listen, watch, and sit still. They are not moving around, interacting with artifacts or technology, and they are not thinking creatively or often times critically. The comparison between fun and boring is very interesting. The fun experiences are almost all opposites of the boring (see below).//




 * (1) Sitting and listening to a lecture is very boring**

//The sage on the stage in a formal classroom can provide for some drowsy eyes. Fifty-five respondents indicated that lecture was boring (sitting and listening to a long lecture).// //It's evident that a lecture needs to grab the learners' attention or they will be bored. There is, of course, room for a lecture, but the instructor needs to make it interesting and interactive so the learner isn't yawning and using tooth picks to keep his eyes open.//

//"It was a dry lecture that was basically being read off the PowerPoint," says Craig Laig, a 41 year old graduate student.// // He goes on to say "The instructor was monotone and uninteresting. The room was crowded. It was after working all day and nobody wanted to be there."

Another student, Co Girl, a 37 year old female graduate student writes a very similar comment "Lecture style to approx 200 people..a bunch of college kids being bored to tears, lots of distraction by them and the instructor was monotone and just lectured." She goes on to say "it was the whole environment..lecture and instructor were not exciting, too many people and things going on to try and focus on the monotony of the course." Golden Girl, a 46 year old female who completed graduate school wrote that her boring experience was "The nature of the class presentation was all lecture. No matter what questions I asked, I couldn't get my head around what was being discussed. It was interesting, because I remember thinking I should be terribly frustrated. On the contrary, it just became monotonous and boring."//


 * (2) Environmental factors make learning boring**

//The environment can impact the learner. Environmental factors such as the time of day, the lighting, the weather, the amount of people in a classroom, and the temperature, just to name a few, can cause many learners to be distracted. It's important for an instructor to take these environmental concerns into mind when teaching a class. These are also more examples of students just sitting and listening to lectures. Twenty-one respondents indicated that no interaction was a big reason why their experience was boring.// //Get them some coffee!//

//Liz, a 26 year old female who completed graduate school writes about her boring time in an introductory sociology class "The experience was boring because there was no interaction and no need to listen or retain the information in the near future."

Maria Montesorri, a 56 year old female who completed graduate school writes "There was no way to connect the information. There was no interaction, there was nothing to engage my brain except taking notes which I could do without really thinking," about her experience in a college English lecture when she was 19 years old. She added "When we can make technology tools that are as engaging as the real world we'll have achieved success."

"There was very little interaction," writes Michael, a 28 year old male student who completed his graduate degree. "Basically the professor just read for three straight hours from PowerPoint slides. The slides contained few pictures or other images, and the professor spoke in a monotone voice and did not seek any interaction with the students in class. It did not help that the class was in the middle of the afternoon and the lights were off, it was very difficult to stay awake."//


 * (3) Training courses are very boring events**

//Nearly every person who wrote about a boring training event had similar problems. I think there is some need for decent training out there. Training must be engaging and allow for interaction. Sitting and watching Powerpoint presentations or listening to lectures for hours on end are not fun for anyone. Sitting at a computer and watching videos is no better. There are fun ways to train people -- even on boring compliance issues. Instructors need to dig deeper and find engaging activities to keep their trainees awake. Twenty people indicated that a training course or training event was terribly boring.//

//ArcheryNoni, a 57 female with some graduate education writes "The training was supposed to be a hands-on learning experience about a new web-based software application. Instead it was a lecture with no interaction and no hands-on activities. The instructor talked "at" us. There was no "checking for understanding" and definitely no long term retention took place that day. There were no handouts or tutorials and no plans for follow-up (thank goodness!)."

"A cultural sensitivity training for the credit union that I worked for. We listened to a speaker talk and we took a test. It was dullsville," writes Waltercat a 33 year old male who completed graduate school.

MJB, a 45 year old female who completed her graduate degree writes "I did not need this training - it was mandatory. The instructor was doing a horrible job as a presenter. She was authoritarian vs warm, welcoming and engaging. I had no respect for her and felt I couldn't learn anything from her, based mostly on her demeanor."//


 * (4) Elementary school children like to move around, not just sit and listen**

//From the results of 19 elementary school children, I determined that they also hate to just sit and listen.

"We sat and watched the teacher, she never asked questions, she just told us about the periodic table."//

//"I was sitting in my homeroom classroom and my teacher was talking to my fellow classmates and me about the revolutionary war. My teacher was talking very slowly so i felt kinda sleepy and I started daydreaming about a movie I saw the night before. I was thinking about the funny parts of the movie. Then the next thing I knew I was back in my classroom sitting in my desk and listening to the very boring sound of my teacher talking," writes 13 year old student Joyful Jen (not so joyful during that experience!)//


 * (5) Students like to learn things that apply to them things that they can apply to their life**

//"The instructor was constantly interrupted by students that were lost/confused, mainly due to a lack of prerequisite skills/knowledge. The techniques the instructor chose to teach seemed arbitrary and didn't really apply to what I wanted to get out of PhotoShop. Rather than being an overview of the program (my expectation), he focused his lecture and in class exercise on a limited, specific area that was not relevant to what I wanted to learn."//

//"It was boring because we didn't get to apply the skill. Also the setting was a large conference room which made it difficult to hear. I also felt that there were just too many instructors presenting in the time alloted," writes M. Rich a 34 year old female with some graduate education.//

What Makes Learning Fun?
//Learning is fun when the learner is engaged and happy. It's what every teacher should want for his/her students (I know I do!) In comparison to the chart above for BORING experiences, the FUN experiences show nearly the opposite responses for all of the activites. The only similarity was that both the boring and the fun expected the learner to listen and watch. Otherwise, nearly across the board, the answers were opposite. For example, learners who interacted with other learners: definitely expected in FUN environments (68%) and not at all expected in boring environment (72%).// Thinking creatively: not at all expected in boring (73%) and definitely expected in fun (66%).
 * (1) Fun happens through hands on activities**

//Fun activities include touching, feeling, and participating. When a student interacts with others or with an object, he is learning and enjoying what he is doing. Twenty seven respondents to the survey indicated that part of their fun experience was interacting. Here are some examples://

//"We learned about mock rocks and rocks by actually interacting and touching the rocks. We moved around from table to table and drew pictures and made notes about the rocks."

"Very interactive. We would learn book knowledge and then apply it in a practical application," writes Prez2 a 33 year old male who completed graduate school, about a fun experience in flight school.//

//"The event had a large color map that the group used to navigate through the course. 8ish people were in the group and we all took turns reading and interacting with the map. Group members had to walk around the table the map was on. Since the group was made up of a very diverse cross section we were able to ask questions one on one from other group members to get more information."//


 * (2) Fun happens when people can create**

//"In Economics class our teacher gave us the task of inventing something. This was the first time I had taken a class where the teacher let us be creative (sad, I know). We got to create something that no one had ever heard of, then market it to the class. It was so much fun, that when I became a teacher, I started the Invention Convention at our school. It's one of my favorite activities to this day," this was actually my own comment, so I included it because it was an experience that has stuck with me through all of my education.//

//"We picked out the pattern of the material and paints. We were allowed to be creative in any design we chose. Ironed the pattern onto the shirt and painted it with vibrant colors. At the end of the class everyone seemed to be happy and amazed with what they had created."//


 * (3) Fun happens when there is humor**

//"It was a hoot! The instructor used humor to keep us alert and probing questions to keep us thinking. We collaborated with our team members dissecting issues that he raised about our current teaching and learning practices. He shared personal experiences and asked us to share how we felt about issues of concern. He listened to our ideas and commented positively, repeating to others what he heard and adding some ideas of his own. He used a variety of methods to continually "check for understanding".

"The class had lots of humor. Students shared their experiences with the rest of the class. Many of the issues of Asian American History were relevant to many students in the class. The topics were interesting." said Chiseled Gorgeous (nice name!) a 31 year old male with some graduate education.//


 * (4) Fun happens when people get to make things**

//"This was a four-week Introduction to Beading class held in a bead store after hours. We learned to make earrings, necklaces, and bracelets and also had a brief lecture each week on something related to beads (history, how their made, etc.)," writes 38 year old female Beading Queen. "The class was mostly hands-on and the number of participants was kept small so that we could each get attention from the Instructor. We also had access to the store, so we could select beads for our projects."//


 * (5) The teacher is one of the main reasons a class can be fun**

//"The course was very specific and involved many different processes that could have been difficult to remember. The instructor had a laid-back, **__humorous__** approach to teaching the class and was sitting on his desk. He would ask for **__interaction__** from the class and would actually wait for an answer therefore forcing us to begin thinking about we were being told. The class was taught be the Instructor actually showing various nerve function on himself and would make jokes about true information. The intructor used other props and illustrations to elaborate of the course material," writes Aaron a 27 year old male who completed his graduate education.//


 * __FUN WORD WALL (just for fun)__**

// Here is a list of words used to describe fun activities :// Activity-based, dissecting, hunting, feeling, touching, simulating, field trips, measuring/testing, hatching, interacting, dynamic teacher, //enthusastic, creating, making, painting, constructing, sewing, building, real-world, engaging, applicable, liberating, humorous, games.//


 * __BORING WORD WALL (just for fun)__**

// Here is a list of words used to describe boring activities : sitting, testing, slow moving, dry, lecturing, diagramming, memorizing, droning, dull, minimal eye contact, monotonous, long, not creative, no interaction, hard to comprehend/difficult, lengthy, tedious, not applicable, boring teacher.//

Implications
//I don't know that I learned anything new from this exercise, but reading through the survey responses made me thankful that education is changing for the better. I still remember sitting and listening to the teacher in front of the class and the monotone and uninteresting lessons that were presented. It's wonderful that we now have so many better strategies for teaching topics, and that those strategies include hands-learning, cooperative learning, and allowing people to learn at their own pace. Keeping learning interesting, fresh, and new is vital to having a fun lesson. I think learning is fun, so I challenge myself to help my students learn in fun and interesting ways. I love field trips, exploration, simulations, experimentations and finding new and unique ways to present material so that students remain interested and engaged. When learning is boring, there really isn't any learning taking place. I can sit for hours and listen to someone talk, but that doesn't mean I have learned anything. I know that I learn best by seeing, touching, and hearing. I think if all of these things are in place, a person is more likely to be engaged and having fun while learning a subject that he may have thought was boring before he started.//